The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,188,873 describes a water leak detection system, the contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference thereto for all purposes. That leak system was designed to be a very robust system with redundant backups, insuring reliable reporting of leaks. The sensor/transmitter system contains multiple water sensors, wirelessly linked to base stations on each floor of a building. The base stations are independently linked by POTS phone line to a cloud server that interprets the call protocol and message. The server logs the call, both daily routine status messages, confirming the sensor is alive, plus battery condition. The server also logs that any alarm messages. Alarm messages are handled differently and are priority messages, resulting in email, text and voice messages to the appropriate person responsible for the specific building. These are also redundantly sent to additional persons in hierarchical sequence until the alarm is acknowledged. The base stations have a further redundancy, which is that each base station calls out individually to the responsible person for the building. These redundant features add to the reliability and hence the value of the system.
The system also includes an on-line password protected portal that shows status of each sensor in each building. Access is granted to customers for their buildings. The portal allows for a simple method to see an overview of an entire building's or property owner's building's sensors. Status currently includes battery status and communication verification as well as history of alarms. Messages are “pushed” weekly to building engineers for any required maintenance of the sensors.
The current system, although reliable, has some limitations for growth into the Internet of Things (IoT), and with over 16K sensors in the field, there are changes that improve upon the previously disclosed system. The current system may be limited in some instances, including: (1) limited wireless range (the wireless communications paradigm does not go through floors or within a floor at a distance greater than 300 feet) without the use of relatively expensive repeaters; (2) all sensors are transmit only and cannot receive messages (although not a major issue with most sensors, combined with a POTS line interface, requiring a phone call to be made to transmit to the server, timing of messages therefore can take several attempts to transmit); (3) base stations are required on every floor due to the range and limitations of the current electronics; (4) the number of sensors attached to each base station are limited; (5) base stations are hard wired to the POTS lines, requiring pulling phone lines in the riser, adding to installation costs; (6) the current electronics are expensive compared to current costs and can be substantially reduced using today's architecture and hardware; (7) the aesthetics of the current system would benefit from a dramatic design refresh; (8) although an operator can shut off service to the portal in case of non-payment by a customer, the base station redundancy allows base stations to still call the customer in case of an emergency; (9) the current alkaline batteries used in the systems, although power can last 5-7 years, many tend to leak after 3-4 years, necessitating replacement of not only the batteries, but the sensors itself due to acid damage; (10) installation and provisioning preferably require a fair degree of expertise and training for superior performance; (11) the current system is not capable of easily adding the next level of features cost effectively; (12) the existing system cannot receive signals from other IoT devices.
There are several general types of communications networks that individually or collectively fail to provide a building-wide architecture allowing arbitrarily large numbers of wireless, battery-operated sensors to communicate outside the building structure. Large commercial buildings increasingly are offered advantages for large numbers of sensors distributed throughout the building yet the existing architecture offerings have drawbacks that hinder adoption and use. Large commercial buildings have many floors and include reinforced concrete and steel structures between floors. Many of the buildings were constructed without an easy way to add wired risers to communicate between floors.
What is needed is a system and method for improving upon limitations of conventional infrastructure communications systems.